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Vladimir Kozlov
On the April 4, 2008 episode of SmackDown, Kozlov made his official WWE debut as a heel, with the unique quirk of having no entrance music and no TitanTron video – his "entrance" consisted of complete darkness except for a solitary spotlight following him to the ring. He defeated Matt Bentley in his first match, and over the following weeks, Kozlov would win a series of squash matches, first against local talent, and then established names including Colin Delaney, Funaki, Nunzio, Shannon Moore, Jimmy Wang Yang, Jamie Noble, and Domino. On the July 11, 2008 airing of SmackDown, Kozlov debuted an entrance theme and TitanTron video as he defeated Stevie Richards. In the following weeks, as Kozlov continued to easily win matches, he began demanding "better competition". On the September 12, 2008 edition of SmackDown, he started to seek that competition, attacking Jeff Hardy. Over the following weeks, Kozlov would continue attacking both Hardy and the WWE Champion Triple H, eventually starting a loose feud between the three of them over the WWE title. On the November 7 episode of SmackDown Kozlov earned a match against Triple H for the WWE Championship at Survivor Series by defeating The Undertaker by disqualification after he was attacked by Jeff Hardy. The match was originally intended to include Kozlov, Jeff Hardy, and Triple H, however Hardy was removed due to a kayfabe injury, the result of this was the addition of Edge to the match while it was in progress, Edge would go on to pin Triple H and win the title. Kozlov lost a beat the clock challenge against Matt Hardy for another title shot, this led to the two meeting at Armageddon, where Kozlov gained his first pay-per-view win by defeating ECW Champion Matt Hardy in a non-title match. Kozlov competed in the 2009 Royal Rumble match, entering number 6 but was eliminated by Triple H after eliminating The Great Khali, Carlito, and Montel Vontavious Porter. He then qualified to be part of the No Way Out Elimination Chamber match, where he was pinned for the first time after receiving a Last Ride from Undertaker, though he still remained unpinned in one-on-one competition. Kozlov's undefeated streak in televised singles competition ended on the March 2, 2009 episode of Raw, in which he was defeated by Shawn Michaels; this match was for the opportunity to face The Undertaker at WrestleMania XXV. His first televised singles loss on SmackDown came against The Undertaker on March 13, 2009. Although he was unable to face The Undertaker at WrestleMania XXV, Kozlov did participate at the event as a lumberjack during the tag team championship unification match between The Colóns and John Morrison and The Miz. On April 13, 2009, Kozlov was drafted to the ECW brand as part of the 2009 WWE Draft, as ECW's only pick of the night. Shortly after the draft, his gimmick was tweaked to further highlight the training he received within the Russian military. He won his first match on the brand when he easily defeated a local competitor. His first non-jobber match came on the June 30 episode of ECW on Syfy, where he teamed with William Regal to defeat Christian and Tommy Dreamer. His first defeat in single's competition on ECW came on the July 9, 2009 edition of ECW on Syfy, where he lost a number one contender's match to Christian for Tommy Dreamer's ECW Championship at Night of Champions. On July 21, Kozlov began an angle with Ezekiel Jackson in which, week after week, after one of them had squashed a local competitor, the other would come out and hit their finishing move on the fallen opponent in a game of one-upmanship. On the August 18 episode of ECW, Jackson was set to team with ECW Champion Christian against the team of Kozlov and number-one contender William Regal. Jackson turned on Christian, forming an alliance with Regal and Kozlov. Kozlov and Jackson aided Regal in his feud with Christian over the ECW Championship, but Regal was unable to capture the title. Soon, William Regal lost a match against Yoshi Tatsu, and Kozlov blamed the loss on Ezekiel Jackson. Ezekiel Jackson got mad and turned on Kozlov and Regal, turning face. Kozlov soon began a feud with Jackson, with one time Jackson defeating him in a match. Later William Regal also turned face, with him and Jackson throwing Kozlov into the announce table. Category:WWE